Wednesday, 27 July 2016

YO Sushi returns to Newcastle

Hands up! Who else was a little gutted when YO! Sushileft Newcastle following the refurbishment of the Fenwick's Food Hall? Simon and I spent many a Saturday lunchtime stacking up piles of colourful dishes off the conveyer belt before having a stroll round our favourite department store. Things just haven't been the same since YO! left!

Well, wipe away those tears as YO! Sushi have finally returned to the Toon with a brand new flagship restaurant that's far bigger than its predecessor. You'll find the new restaurant on Grainger Street in the heart of Newcastle and it boasts 69 covers.

As much as I loved our old YO! in Fenwick it was pretty much forgotten about as soon as I stepped foot inside the new place. Wow! It is seriously huge with quite possibly the largest YO conveyer belt I've ever seen and loads more booths.

Ladies and Gentleman we have landed in Tokyo!

If I plan to get down to some serious eating then the lovely Sarah is one of my favourite dining companions. We love nothing more than eating greedy amounts of food whilst discussing our fitness goals (we do it every time and it always makes us laugh!).

Put two people who love eating next to a conveyer belt full of colourful dishes filled with food and things are bound to get a little out of hand. Sarah and I both felt like kids in a sweet shop.

For those of you who haven't been to YO! Sushi before, allow me to explain. The menu on the table acts as both a menu that you can order your fresh hot food from and also a guide to what is going round on the conveyer belt. Press the "call" button on your table when you're ready to order or simply grab whatever you fancy off the conveyer belt.

The food all arrives in brightly coloured bowls that are colour co-ordinated according to their price with the cheapest green dishes being £2.15 each and the most expensive black dishes £8.50 each. Be warned you will get carried away and these little dishes do begin to add up!

The folks at YO! Sushi Newcastle are great at helping you out if you're stuck with any part of the menu and always on hand to give you recommendations if you need them. Our lovely waiter suggested that we try the Aloe Vera drink rather than our usual diet coke and it was really tasty and refreshing.

I began by grabbing myself some Salmon Maki off the conveyer belt just as a little starter. I always like to warm myself up with the chopsticks by attempting to eat something small before I move onto the messier foods and the Salmon Maki went down a treat.

Whilst I was tucking into that we ordered ourselves some hot dishes and decided on getting a few each to share. YO! Sushi works best if you try loads of different dishes, and I'm definitely never shy when it comes to covering my table in brightly coloured bowls.

Sarah went for the Takoyaki (lightly battered dough balls with octopus) and Chicken Teriyaki and I decided on the Yasai Yakisoba (noodles in a tangy sauce served with vegetables) and Duck Gyoza, duck filled dumplings with hoisin dipping sauce. My absolute favourite and something that I have to order each time I go.

Our clear winner of the evening though was the Popcorn Shrimp Tempura, a dish that neither of us had tried before but that we both completely fell in love with. We shared the bowl as we chatted and didn't realise how fast we were getting through it. It was just so good! We both agreed that we could have happily munched our way through an entire bucket of it. A definite new favourite!

It's not often I leave myself enough room for a sweet treat at YO! and if I'm being completely honest with you I don't think I really had room for it on this visit either but there were some delicious goodies whizzing past me on the belt and before I knew it I'd grabbed a couple.

If you've never tried a dessert at YO! Sushi before then I can recommend the Custard Dorayaki (Japanese pancake sandwich with a custard filling) or if you're a chocoaholic like me the Chocolate Mochi (sweet rice balls with a chocolate ganache centre) both are amazing.

We had a fantastic evening at the new YO! Sushi and I'm so happy that they have finally returned to Newcastle!

Thank you to YO Sushi for our inviting us for dinner. Our meals were complementary but all opinions are my own.

We are huge Yo Sushi fans in our family. Unfortunately we've still not checked the new one out. We'll have to get down soon. I've not tried the popcorn shrimp tempura, I'll have to try it when we go down. I'll share this on my site for you tomorrow